A day in the life
by shadowwolf75
Summary: Just what the title says, a day in the life of a female technician aboard the Nadesico . . . however, this lady is very different from the other girls on the ship! Not getting updated again, ever . . . completely lost interest in the show and this fic.
1. Morning . . .

tech A day in the life . . .   
by ShadowWolf75 

well, let's see here . . . this is a day or two in the life of one of the few female technicians on the Nadesico. She's older than most of the girls on the ship, has no interest in Akito whatsoever (in fact she thinks Akito is an idiot), and doesn't particularly like Yurika, since the captain is a total ditz . . .   
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My alarm clock went off as usual, at 7:00 AM. Yawning, I got out of bed and switched the alarm off, then changed into the standard pale blue mechanic uniform all the other assorted techs and mechanics had to wear. Personally, I thought I looked better in purple, but I'm a tech and that's what I have to wear . . . I gave my hair a brief brushing, glaring at the white streak in my otherwise perfect dark brown hair, then headed out the door. 

It was way too early for me to be coherent enough to cook my own breakfast, so I wandered down to the galley to see what Ms. Howmei and the girls had to offer. The smell of cinnamon was wafting down the hallway from the galley, and I smiled dreamily as that usually meant there were cinnamon buns waiting . . . 

I got to the galley and was quite pleased to find Howmei and her fellow cooks had made enough cinnamon buns for the entire crew. Another dreamy smile graced my lips as I headed over to get my usual spiced coffee and a cinnamon bun. Having gotten breakfast, I sat down at one of the tables to eat. As I took a bite of my cinnamon bun and washed it down with a swig of coffee, I took a look around the room. The only people that really had to be up that early were the command staff, my fellow techs, and the cooks, so there wasn't too many people there yet. 

A bunch of the other techs were at their usual table, but Seiya had yet to join them. I looked back at the line and saw him getting his usual coffee. He walked over to the techs' table with a magazine in hand and sat down. From the reaction to the magazine as it got passed around the table, I figured it either had to be a Victoria's Secret catalog or the latest issue of Mad Scientist Monthly . . . 

I snickered slightly, then resumed looking around the room. At the opposite end of my table, I noticed Admiral Munetake had just sat down. Now _there_ was one of the most unappreciated people onboard this ship of fools! If you wanted to get technical, he was the UEF's 'leash', making sure we didn't try anything like going to Mars again. For that reason alone, most of the crew hated him. Personally, I didn't think he was all that bad. After all, we had nearly gotten massacred on Mars, and he was there to keep us from pulling any similar stunts. 

Munetake looked at least as tired as I was, yawning mightily before taking a sip of his coffee. I noticed a pile of computer printout on the table in front of him, most likely our new orders. He was probably awake way before anyone else on the ship, discussing said orders with his superiors over a secured comm channel. 

"Good morning, Admiral," I said, wanting to be nice. 

He wasn't quite paying attention and muttered, "That depends on your definition of good . . .", before blinking and looking over at me. "Huh? Oh, I'm sorry; I was a little distracted there. Good morning, um . . ." 

It looked like Munetake didn't know my name. Not that I expected him to know, but still . . . "Luna. Luna Akari." 

"Well then, good morning, Miss Akari." 

I heard snickering nearby and looked up to find Seiya and the other techs watching me. Seiya stood up and pointed in my direction. "Hey Luna, if you like men in uniform so much, you should come over and sit with us!" 

I smirked a bit before I replied. "If you boys respected women as much as you do your machines, maybe I _would_ sit over there with you. But as that's not the case . . ." I trailed off, leaving Seiya to sputter indignantly. Don't get me wrong, they _did_ respect me enough since I'm a fellow tech, but they saw nearly all the other women on the ship as prizes to be pursued and won. 

I heard soft laughter again and looked over at Munetake; he was snickering at my comeback. I smiled at that; the Admiral was one of the few on this boat that had a point of view similar to mine. Love and loyalty had burned us one too many times . . . sarcastic as all hell to hide our deepest pains, we trusted no one but ourselves. Gah, sounds like something outta that Gekigangar anime . . . but then the whole Gekigangar thing seems to be a recurring theme around here. I wonder why that is? 

I pondered that for a moment, then ate the rest of my cinnamon bun and finished off my coffee. I told Seiya that I was heading for the Aestivalis hangar and that I'd meet him down there. He muttered in agreement and I left my table, threw the paper cup my coffee was in into the nearest garbage can, then I left the galley.   
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Well, how do you like it so far? Reviews would be nice but aren't required . . . that little box is right down there, though. Now that you're down here, you might as well use it, ne? 


	2. Midmorning . . .

A day in the life . . . A day in the life . . .   
by ShadowWolf75 

Luna Akari's day continues! She'll be doing various technician-type stuff, and more of the main cast will show up in here . . .   
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2: Mid-morning . . .   


It was slowly but surely nearing 10 AM . . . we were doing Aesti maintenance for the past two hours or so, and as we finished with that, Seiya was sending people off to do work in other parts of the ship. A group went to the bridge, another to the galley and rec room, and yet another group was sent around the ship making various small repairs wherever it was needed. 

Seiya walked over to where I was putting some finishing touches of paint on Akito's Aesti. "You almost done with this?" 

"Yeah, it just needs a tiny bit more paint right here," I replied as I gave the paint sprayer's trigger one last pull. Pink paint covered the formerly gunmetal grey spot on the Aestivalis, and the mecha looked good as new. I turned to Seiya and said, "There, all done. Now, what did you need me for, boss?" 

Seiya regarded the datapad he was holding. "Erina and Prospector have been complaining about the comm signal to Nergal HQ; it keeps getting loads of static and in some cases it doesn't want to broadcast at all. I want you to go see what's wrong with it, but hopefully it's something on Nergal's end of things." 

"Okay, I'll go check it out. And _please_ tell me only Prospector is waiting for me in the transmitter room . . ." 

Seiya smirked at me and I groaned. "Sorry Luna," he said, "Erina's down there too. Oh, and you better hurry, she didn't sound too pleased!" 

I cursed as I grabbed a toolkit and headed for the transmitter room. "Seiya, I'll get you for this sometime in the near future, you can count on it!" I shouted back to him as I ran. The transmitter room was something of a long distance from the Aesti hangar, and I got to thinking about Erina on the way there. 

Erina Kinjo Won. What can I say about her that hasn't already been said, and most likely in much nastier terms than I'm prone to use? Practically no one on the ship liked her, except for Nagare Akatsuki, and everyone suspected they were _both_ spies for Nergal. Erina was one of those corporate power players that refuse to take no for an answer, and doesn't care who or what she hurts on her way to the top. I admired her tenacity, but other than that, I thought she was truly a cold and heartless bitch. 

I finally got to the transmitter room and went inside. Like Seiya had said, both Mr. Prospector and Erina were there, waiting for someone in maintenance to fix the transmitter or whatever else was wrong. 

"It's about time Uribatake sent someone down here; we've been waiting for an hour!" Erina shouted, clearly disliking not having priority when it came to ship repairs. 

Prospector was a little more understanding. "Now Erina, surely you realize Aestivalis repair holds top priority? The signal to Nergal isn't all that important in the grand scheme of things; it certainly can't protect us from the Jovians, while the Aestis can." 

Seeing something of an opportunity, I continued. "He's right, you know. If the Aestis weren't in tip-top shape, this boat would've been destroyed 10 times over! You should be glad we take such good care of one of our greatest weapons against the Jovians." 

Erina glared at us both. "Yes, yes, I understand; now could you just get on with fixing this thing?" 

"Sure thing, ma'am." I opened the comm console access panel and looked inside. To a casual observer, it might have looked as if nothing was wrong, but I could see the problem immediately. Some of the I/O lines had gotten knocked loose somehow, probably during one of the Nadesico's recent battles. "Well, that was easy enough to find, but fixing it's another matter entirely." 

"What do you mean? What's wrong in there?" Erina demanded. 

"There's a bunch of loose wires in there, they're probably what's causing all the static and signal loss," I explained. "As for fixing it, I could just plug everything back in, but the next time this ship gets knocked around in battle, they might come loose again. It would probably be better to solder the things into place, but that'll take a while." 

Erina looked annoyed. "And just how long is 'a while'?" 

"About an hour, maybe two." 

"Forget it then!" Erina ordered. "I'm already half an hour late making a report to Nergal; just plug the wires back in!" 

I had half a mind to start arguing with her, but when I saw the look on Erina's face I realized there was no point in trying. "Okay, just don't come whining to me if this thing goes down after a rough battle with the Jovians!" I reached into the console and starting putting the I/O lines back in order; it took me about 20 minutes to get all of it right again but I succeeded. On powering the console back up and calling Nergal, the signal didn't show a trace of static or instability. 

"Good job, technician. You can go now." Erina ordered. I shrugged and turned to leave, knowing she didn't want me there while she spouted off her secrets to her superiors. 

Prospector stopped me at the door for a moment. "Thank you for your time, Ms. Akari," he said rather politely. I smiled at that; he was one of the few long-time Nergal personnel I actually liked. 

"No problem, it was a relatively easy fix. I still say I should have soldered it, though. Oh well, I'll get around to it eventually. See you around, Mr. Prospector!" 

I left the room, somewhat eager to get out of there and away from Erina. Sighing slightly, I called Seiya on my communicator to ask for another job to do. Amazingly, he didn't have anything for me, so I decided to hang out in my quarters until lunchtime. 


	3. Noon . . .

A day in the life . . . A day in the life . . .   
by ShadowWolf75 

It's 12 PM, time for lunch! It's also time for Akito-chasing, as far as Yurika and Megumi are concerned . . . Luna is a casual observer of all the chaos, and of course she has her own opinion of it!   
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3: Noon . . . 

12 PM rolled around and I headed down to the galley for lunch. The place was considerably more crowded than it had been at breakfast, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I went over and looked at the selections, decided on the Mars Bowl and went to the counter to order it. 

"One Chinese Mars Bowl, please!" I told the girl behind the counter. 

"One Chinese Mars Bowl, coming up!" she replied. The girl, I think her name was Eri or something, poked her head into the kitchen and yelled, "Hey Akito, we need another Mars Bowl out here!" 

"Coming right up!" I heard the object of every younger female's attention yell out to the girl. Akito should have kept his mouth shut, since his voice reminded Yurika and Megumi he was back there. 

"Akito, when are you going to be done back there? You said you'd eat lunch with me, remember?" Yurika asked, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Akito and the rest of the cook staff had to feed everyone on the ship before they could take a break. 

"Not so fast, Captain, he said he'd eat lunch with me!" Megumi exclaimed. An argument started between the two girls and I groaned in exasperation and maybe a little misery. It happened nearly every day . . . while the girls' fights over Akito may have been interesting to some people on this boat, it usually got on my nerves. I mean, what was the point, really? Akito might be cute, and he might be a pilot, but why was nearly every woman on this ship trying to get with him? He certainly wasn't brave, and definitely not the sharpest tool in the box . . . I just didn't get it at all. 

In the meantime, Akito had finished making my Mars Bowl, and the girl at the counter handed it to me. I went looking for a place to sit, hopefully as far away from Yurika and Megumi as possible, and almost equally far from anyone who was watching them with interest. I spotted Admiral Munetake near the back, occasionally throwing a glare in Megumi and Yurika's direction while he ate his lunch. Smirking a bit, I went over and sat down beside him. 

"Oh, for a quiet lunch . . ." I muttered as I sat down. 

"You can say that again!" Munetake replied. "Every day, the same thing . . . Akito this, Akito that! I swear, if Captain Misumaru paid more attention to fighting than she does to that little punk, we'd probably have won the war by now!" 

I laughed at that remark and put my own two cents in. "Heh; well, I suppose that's one way to look at it! And Megumi isn't any better. Remember that time in the Bering Straits when you first showed up? Instead of being at her post, Megumi took Akito on a tour of the VR room! There's too much love and not enough responsibility going around on this ship if you ask me." 

"That is _so_ true! Sometimes I think Nergal purposely decided to hire the strangest people they could get their hands on--" Munetake stopped talking, as I had elbowed him in the ribs. "What was that for?!" 

"Nergal hired me, didn't they?!" I growled. 

Munetake blinked, as if just realizing what he'd said. "Um, er, when I said that, I wasn't referring to you, I was talking about other Nergal employees on the Nadesico! You're one of the most normal people on this ship, Ms. Akari." 

I glared at him for a moment more, then shrugged it off. "Eh, I suppose I can forgive you. Anyone can say things they don't really mean." I looked over at the two still arguing girls and winced. It was getting decidedly ugly over there, and would only get worse once Akito came out of that kitchen. "Hrm, getting nasty over there. How about we finish our food and get the hell out of here before things get any worse, huh?" 

Munetake looked over at the argument and winced as well. "Good idea." 

We ate in silence after that, but we wouldn't have the luck of getting out of there before all hell broke loose . . . 

"Akito is my boyfriend, not yours! You can't have him, Megumi!" Yurika shouted. 

"I don't think you ever had him in the first place, Yurika!!" Megumi yelled back. 

"What was that?! Why I oughta--" Yurika looked around and her eyes focused on a nearby bowl of food. She grabbed it and pitched it towards Megumi! The comm officer managed to duck in time, but the edible projectile wound up landing on someone else, namely Erina Kinjo Won. 

"How dare you!?" Erina demanded. She reached for her tray and got ready to throw it. "Well, if it's a fight you want, that's what you'll get!" Erina pitched her tray at Yurika and nearly everyone else in the galley joined in on the action before you could yell 'Food Fight!!!' 

"Gah!" I cried, ducking a thrown tray. "Forget the food, Admiral, let's just get outta here!" He didn't even bother to agree with me, he just joined me in running like hell for the door, dodging thrown food all the way. We nearly made it out unscathed, but we had to deal with a ketchup-bottle wielding Izumi near the door. 

"Viva la Revolution!!" Izumi yelled, threatening to squirt ketchup in our direction. She started giggling insanely and I took the opportunity to grab a fallen tray to use as a shield. Izumi squeezed the ketchup bottle and the red stuff went flying at me, but I caught it on the tray. I pitched the tray back to the floor and ran out of the galley, Munetake close behind me. 

We were both out of breath by the time we were out of harm's way, a short distance down a corridor from the galley. I looked myself over, then glanced at Munetake and said, "Well, looks like we both got out of there unscathed. One other good thing about it: it certainly wasn't the usual fight over Akito, that's for damn sure!" 

Munetake laughed a bit at that remark. "You've got that right, Ms. Akari!" He took a glance at his watch and started heading down the corridor. "Well, it's nearly 1 o'clock, so I should be getting back to work!" 

I was kind of surprised the time had gone that fast. "Already? I need get back to my job too; I'll see you around, Admiral!" 

We went our seperate ways, him to his office and me to Engineering and the Aesti hangar. On the way to the hangar, I thought of what might happen next. There was already a food fight, what other crazy stuff could happen in a day on the Nadesico? 


	4. Afternoon . . .

A day in the life . . . A day in the life . . .   
by ShadowWolf75 

Lesse here, I'm not sure what this one will be about, but there'll probably be an Aesti battle in here somewhere!   
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4: Afternoon . . . 

I went to Sickbay to get some Advil for a slight headache about a half-hour after lunch, and was rather surprised at the sight that greeted me. A couple of survivors of the food fight were waiting to be seen by Fressange; I guess a couple of them got smacked too hard by flying trays. 

Ruri was walking past Sickbay for some reason, and she looked in the room. Spying the semi-food-covered people in the waiting room, she muttered, "Idiots . . ." before continuing on her way. 

It wasn't too long after that when the Nadesico had the misfortune of being detected by one of the fleets of Jovian Grasshoppers that's taken up wandering around Earth and it's orbit. I groaned when I saw the red alert lights flashing; by the time the battle was over, some major Aesti repairs might need to be done. Cursing slightly, I ran to the hangar to help prep the Aestis for launch. 

Getting to the hangar, I spotted Seiya barking orders to the other techs through his bullhorn. He saw me coming and yelled, "What took you? Get over there and help the rest of the team getting Akatsuki and Subaru ready for launch!" 

"Whatever you say, boss!" I replied even as I was running across the hangar towards the two Aestis. I wound up running final safety check on both of them, with Akatsuki's getting the okay for launch, but Ryoko's had a slight problem in it's energy system. 

"Oh, come on, let me launch! It doesn't seem like anything's wrong from in here!" Ryoko yelled through a comm window that popped up beside me. 

I glared at her, knowing the dangers of an Aesti with a screwed up energy system. "If you try taking off with an energy imbalance, you might blow up before you even clear the damned catapult! Now settle down, this'll only take a second to fix!" I looked up at the other tech analyzing the energy system, a very competent guy by the name of Shiro. "Hey Shiro, did you get it yet?" 

"Just about, Luna!" he replied as poked around the Aesti's internals with a probe. "There's a short circuit in here and I almost have it pinned down-- there, got it!" Shiro withdrew the probe and shut the access panel. "Okay, try testing it now!" 

I ran the test again and everything was showing green, as it should be. "There. Okay, Ryoko, you're clear for takeoff!" 

"Took long enough. Okay then, I got a date with some Jovians, so clear outta the way!!" Ryoko exclaimed 

I went for cover along with the other techs, and Ryoko's Aesti went stomping towards the gravity catapult. The mecha went flying down the energized corridor and out into the battle. 

Seiya accessed the Nadesico's external cameras so we could watch the battle down there in the Aesti hangar. Supposedly it was so we could see how badly the mechas got damaged and be prepared to fix them, but more so we could just watch. Cheers went up as Hikaru disposed of about 10 Grasshoppers in a single pass, and everybody booed when Akatsuki went flying past the active camera! 

"Get outta the way, you long-haired showoff! We want to see the real pilots!" I yelled at the screen. The other techs cheered in agreement. Akatsuki's Aesti went out of the camera's range and a few seconds later we spotted Akito vaporizing about 20 Jovian mechas, and he was probably yelling 'Gekigan Flare!!!' as he went. Yes, still more Gekigangar references . . . this place is just full of 'em! 

Izumi destroyed a few Grasshoppers, probably spouting off those puns of hers as she blasted the bugs to kingdom come. I don't know about the rest of the crew, but I think some of those puns of Izumi's are actually funny. It's a very rare occurrence, mind you, but still . . . 

And while I mused on that for a moment, Ryoko proceeded to rack up the highest kill count of the bunch, finishing off most of the attackers while the few remaining headed for parts unknown. A resounding cheer went up through the ranks of my fellow techs, and through the rest of the ship as well, I'd imagine. We had reason to celebrate, since none of the Aestis were seriously damaged during the battle. 

They all came back into the ship, and left their Aestis and whatever repairs were needed to us. It wasn't much, just the usual reloading of ammo and replacing or painting over damaged armor. We managed to fix everything by the time evening shift rolled around, and I headed to my quarters for a well deserved break . . .


	5. Evening . . .

A day in the life . . .   
by Shadow Wolf75 

Sorry for the wait, but it's taken me a while to think up something for this chapter! Whoever said about the use of the word 'boat' in reference to the Nadesico, yes, it's crew slang. Okay, it's evening on the Nadesico now, night shift's taken over and the day shift is doing recreational stuff or going to bed. Luna isn't quite tired yet, so she's wandering the ship in search of something to do . . .   
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5: Evening . . . 

I yawned slightly in boredom as I walked the corridors. I wasn't really tired at the moment, and I'd watched most of the anime I own at least three times while I've been on the Nadesico, so I looked for something else to do. Sure, walking around the ship _was_ something to do, but it was getting boring really fast. 

In a while, I found myself at the rec area, where Prospector and Jun Aoi were playing table tennis against each other. Jun looked somewhat irritated and Prospector was his usual smug self . . . 

"I still can't believe she wouldn't pick me over that damned frycook! What the hell does Yurika see in him anyway?" Jun growled as he spiked the ping pong ball towards Prospector. 

Prospector parried the ball back at Jun with ease and replied, "The same thing half the girls on this ship do, apparently. And really, I thought you'd gotten over this by now, Mr. Aoi . . ." 

Deciding that watching those two play would be more interesting than walking around the ship anymore, I went over to them. "Hey guys! So, playing table tennis and arguing about Tenkawa, huh?" 

Jun looked slightly insulted. "Arguing? Who's arguing? We're just discussing Akito like civilized adults . . ." Jun said before whacking the ball back at Prospector again. 

I smirked at this, and I'm pretty sure Prospector did too. "Sure thing, Jun, you just keep telling yourself that. So what happened this time; did Yurika drag Akito off somewhere as opposed to doing something with you?" 

Jun sighed as he caught the ball, then put it and his ping pong paddle down on the table. The game could wait until he said what happened. "Well, I saw Yurika cooking in the galley, then she took whatever she made to Akito's quarters . . . I bet they're in there right now watching Gekigangar together while he tells her what a great cook she is!" 

I blinked, twice. "Yurika cooked for him again?" I snickered a bit but stopped myself from laughing hysterically. "Heh, I was wondering where that agonized scream came from earlier . . . if anything, Akito's probably in Sickbay right now, begging Fressange to either give him antacids or to just put him out of his misery! Don't glare at me like that, dammit, you know Yurika can't cook worth crap." 

Jun continued to glare. "She just needs practice! Besides, it's the thought that counts, isn't it?" 

Prospector chose that moment to add his two cents. "He does have something of a point, Ms. Akari." 

"Yeah, I guess. But still, Yurika's just too crazy for Akito . . . she hardly even notices you anymore, Jun. Maybe you oughta try for one of the Howmei Girls or something--" I began, but Jun cut me off. 

"It doesn't matter; I love Yurika and that's all there is to it. I might not be able to have her all to myself anymore, but I can still love her, can't I? Don't you have anyone you care for like that?" Jun asked of me. 

"Hrm, there's a tough one." I stopped to think it over for a moment. "Well, I guess Seiya counts . . . I've known him practically forever and we're good friends. But there were times I might have wanted something more from the relationship . . . then he got married and that was the end of that! I can't have him, but I guess I do love him in a way. As for the more traditional kind of love, at the moment I'm not sure I have anyone in mind . . ." 

Even as I finished saying that, I thought of Admiral Munetake for some odd reason. I pushed the thought away for the moment . . . after all, any affection I'd dare to show him would be seen as pity instead, considering his standing with the rest of the crew. Munetake would never accept it, I know he wouldn't. Besides that, there's our ranks to consider; he's an admiral with the UE and I'm just a damn mechanic working for Nergal. It would never work out . . . 

I was finally getting tired then; I said good night to Prospector and Jun and let them get back to their game and their own argument. I went to my quarters to get some sleep, but little did I know all hell was about to break loose . . . 


End file.
